A sermon preached at (an empty) Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho on Palm Sunday April 5, 2020 Mark 11:1-11, 14:3-9 Mark tells us the crowds quote Psalm 118 as Jesus enters Jerusalem—“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”. This psalm is often sung at Passover, when the Hebrew people…
A sermon preached at (an empty) Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho March 22, 2020 Mark 12:28-44 Jesus has had lots of questions sent his way as he’s been journeying to Jerusalem. We have discussed how some of the questions were possibly ill advised. And some were intended to make the questioner look good. And…
Mark 10:17-31 A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise on March 1, the first Sunday of Lent. We talked about questions the other night on Ash Wednesday. Jesus’ disciples had questions for him. But they were too afraid to ask them. Here, it is a whole different story. We have questions all over…
An Ash Wednesday Meditation February 26, 2020 Mark 9:30-37 We’ve been looking at Mark’s gospel the past month or so. And we’ve noticed that Mark keeps saying things like “let those with ears to hear, hear” or “let those with eyes to see, see”. Jesus understands that not everyone will understand Jesus, or his mission,…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho February 8 2020 Mark 6 Let’s start at the middle passage, a very fine place to start. Jesus sends the 12 disciples out in pairs, like animals off the ark, to heal, to cast out demons, to call people to repent. We often give the…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho Feb 2, 2020 Mark 5:21-43 In the first few chapters of Mark’s gospel, Jesus has been traveling a lot. Last week, if you recall, he had to calm a storm as they were traveling from the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee to the…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho January 19, 2020 Mark 4:1-34 Today we have yet another story of Jesus teaching the large crowds. This crowd beside the sea was so large that he got in a boat and put out from shore a ways so they could all see and hear…
A Christmas Eve sermon at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho December 24, 2019 Luke 2:1-20 All of the Star Wars movies start out with the line “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away….” It is a “once upon a time” signal, a phrase that tells us we are entering a mythical…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho December 14, 2019 Ezra 1:1-4, 3:1-4, 10-13 As we’ve learned throughout the fall, the Jews had been carted off to exile in Babylon initially in 586 BCE. Their temple destroyed by Nebachadnezzer. Their lives upended. But then Persia had become the dominant power in the…
A sermon preached at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Boise, Idaho December 1, 2019 Jeremiah 33:14-18 Welcome to Advent! I know some of you think “Advent” is Latin for “why can’t we sing Christmas Carols yet?”, but in fact, adventus means arriving, or something about to begin. It is the beginning of the church year, and…
Glass Overflowing 